Summertime in Ukraine – Busy Working with Aliyah!

In the past days it has been very warm here, 35+ degrees Celsius. So, it’s really summer! Despite the warmth we are very busy with the olims’ aliyah. In total more than 150 olim (new immigrants) have left for Israel for good. This was done with three flights, of which one from Odessa (near the Black Sea).

“Every year students that grew up in Tikva also leave for Israel for good via a special program set up for them”

All our minivans where on their way to pick up olim and take them to the fully booked shelter in Kiev. They drove to different places in the whole of Ukraine. One group left on Thursday morning, the other group on Thursday night from Kiev. The final group flew from Odessa to Tel Aviv. For the olim from Odessa we asked Tikva to help, the orphanage in which Michael Brodman works. We asked them to help with the transportation, which they thought was a great idea. By the way, every year students that grew up in Tikva also leave for Israel for good. A special program has been set up for them.

Natasha
I had a chat with Natasha, the lady on the photograph, next to the minivan. She told me a couple of very interesting things. Her daughter went to Israel twenty years ago, at the age of fourteen. She followed a special four-year-aliyah-graduation-programme. The programme is called Na’aleh, which means “return for the parents”. Natasha had been thinking that her daughter would return after four years. But, like most parents, she was wrong. It turns out that 99 percent of the children who participate in the Na’aleh-programme stay in Israel. After her military service and a university education in Jerusalem, Natasha’s daughter now works for Pfizer in Tel Aviv.

“99 percent of the children who participate in the Na’aleh-programme stay in Israel”

Natasha herself had been working with children for a Jewish organization for five years. She had told them a lot about Israel, but never thought that one day she would go herself…

Ready for the journey
Another elderly couple from the small town of Tokmak in Eastern Ukraine had also chosen to leave. Some time ago they decided to make the journey to the Promised Land, together with their daughter and her family. From the town of Zaporozhe food parcels are delivered regularly to the small Jewish community in Tokmak. An elderly couple who actually was supposed to go to Israel two years ago had been living in Zaporozhe. But shortly before their departure it became too much for them, so their son and his family left without them. Now, albeit a little bit on edge and uncertain, they are ready for the journey.

Some drivers have been driving for over twelve hours in the heat on their way to Kiev. We consider ourselves lucky that we have an air conditioner now, else we would mainly have to drive during the night. In our shelter everyone is welcomed by our fieldworker Nataliya. We told something about our work, for example that we already had received over 7,000 Jews in the shelter. Some for a short period, others for a longer period of time. But they were all on their way to Israel. We were also asked what motivates us as non-Jews to help these people to return to Israel. Two of the Bible verses we cited as an answer were the verses from Isaiah 11:11-12.

“In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the surviving remnant of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Babylonia, from Hamath and from the islands of the Mediterranean. He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; he will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four quarters of the earth.” 

The elderly generation realizes that the return in the old days, before the fall of the Iron Curtain, was not that obvious at all. By now, that has been thirty years since then.

Photo gallery (click on the photo below) 

In the mean time we have been receiving over 7,000 Jews in the shelter, before they left for Israel. When we arrived at the airport, we were greeted by volunteers who helped all the olim with their luggage. After that we said goodbye. The first part of the return was over. Now we have the flight to Israel, then a ten-day quarantine and then the integration process begins. This process takes six months to a year, which is not going to be easy.

The coming weeks a number of other flights are scheduled for Jewish families who will leave for good. Hopefully it will be less warm then…

In the following weeks we will keep you informed about the work of Koen Carlier and his team in Ukraine in this series “Summertime in Ukraine”.

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